Melancthon  W.    Jacobus 


A  Plea   for  the  Critical   Study   of  the 
Scriptures?   against  Romanlem  and 
Rationalism 


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FOR     THE 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 


AGAINST 


ROMANISM  AND  RATIONALISM, 


A    DISCOURSE, 


DELIVERED    BY 


REV.  MELANCTHON  W.  JACOBUS,  D.  D. 

ON  TIIE  OCCASION   OP   HIS  INAUGURATION  AS   PROFESSOR  OF  BIBLICAL  AND  ORIENTAt  LITERATURE   fN  THE 
■    WESTERN  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY  AT   ALLEGHENY  CITY,   PA. 


April  12,  1852. 


PUBLISHED  BY  REQUEST  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  DIRECTORS. 


PRINTED  BY  SIIRYOCK  &  HACKE,  CORNER  WOOD  AND  THIRD  STREETS,  PITTSBURGH. 

1852. 


Pittsburgh,  May  13th,  1852. 
Rev.  M.  W.  Jacobus,  D.  D. 

Dear  Sir: — At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  Western  Theological  Seminary  last  evening,  the  following  Resolution 
was  unanimously  adopted,  viz: 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  three  be  appointed  to  request  of  Professor 
Jacobus  a  copy  of  his  Inaugural  Address,  delivered  before  the  Board  of  Direc- 
tors this  evening,  for  publication  in  Pamphlet  form. 

The  undersigned  committee  take  great  pleasure  in  conveying  to  you  the 
above  resolution,  and  respectfully  request  as  early  a  reply  as  will  suit  your 
convenience. 

LUKE  LOOMIS, 

F.  G.  BAILEY, 

J.  SCHOONMAKER. 


Western  Theological  Seminary,  Allegheny  City,  ) 

May  Uth,  1851.  ) 

To  Messrs.  Luke  Loomis,  F.  G.  Bailey,  J.  Schoonmaker: 

Gentlemen: — In  reply  to  your  very  kind  note, 
conveying  the  Resolution  of  the  Directors,  I  submit  a  copy  of  the  Inaugural 

Address,  &c. 

With  high  respect,  Yours, 

MELANCTHON  W.  JACOBUS. 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 


"I  know  but  little  of  the  Hebrew,"  said  one  of  the  great  Re- 
formers, "but  the  little  that  I  know,  I  would  not  exchange  for 
worlds."  This  was  the  Reformation  spirit,  roused,  at  length,  after 
the  slumber  of  ages,  to  protest  against  any  infallible  expositor  of 
God's  Word — to  assert  the  right  of  private  judgment  under  the 
promised  guidance  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  subject  every  opinion 
to  the  test  of  Sacred  Writ  as  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and 
practice.  The  Protestant  principle  looked  beyond  versions,  as  it 
looked  beyond  creeds.  It  would  be  content  only  with  searching  out 
the  very  mind  of  the  Spirit.  Papacy  and  Infidelity  can  forego  this 
task.  And  in  proportion  as  the  Scriptures  have  been  held  in  rever- 
ence as  the  very  Word  of  God  for  every  man,  in  that  proportion  has 
the  study  of  the  originals  been  pursued. 

Hence  Ave  challenge  Romanism  on  the  one  hand,  and  Infidelity  on 
the  other,  with  the  Scriptures  in  the  sacred  tongues.  Our  Protestant 
Bible  is  not  King  James'  version,  nor  Luther's,  nor  the  Geneva — 
not  any  nor  all  of  these — so  much  as  it  is  the  Hebrew  and  Greek 
Testaments.  But  the  Romanist's  Bible  is  the  Latin  Vulgate,  with 
its  apocrypha  and  the  endless  traditions  which  they  have  set  above 
the  word  of  God.  And  this  Bible  of  theirs  is  not  as  old  as  Chris- 
tianity by  some  six  hundred  years.  And  hence  £et  me  say,  that 
Church  itself  cannot  be  older  than  the  seventh  century,  unless  it  was 
a  Church  without  its  Bible. 

And  what  claim  has  their  Bible  to  be  the  standard  in  Christen- 
dom ?  Though  it  was  pronounced  by  the  Council  of  Trent  to  be  the 
only  authentic  text  "  from  which  no  one,  upon  any  pretext,  should 


presume  or  dare  to  differ,"  Pope  Sixtus  V  soon  after,  decreed  it  to  be 
erroneous,  and  issued  another  most  infallible  and  from  which  no  one 
should  dare  to  differ.  But  in  two  years  after,  another  Pope  ordered 
this  one  to  be  suppressed,  as  swarming  with  errors,  and  sent  forth 
his  own  rival  infallible  Vulgate,  differing  from  the  former  in  upwards 
of  two  thousand  instances ! 

But  the  Protestant  principle  is  this — to  appeal  from  all  versions 
to  the  primitive  Scriptures.  The  Papist  tells  us  that  our  Bible  is 
not  the  Word  of  God.  We  confront  him  with  the  very  law  and  the 
testimony  in  the  original  tongues.  We  claim  no  doctrine  or  rule  of 
faith  on  the  authority  of  a  mere  version  which  is  human.  And  we 
are  willing  to  contest  every  inch  of  ground  on  this  sole  platform  of 
the  -primitive  and  inspired  record.  Rome  has  built  her  own  system 
on  a  version  of  man.  And  thus  it  is  that  she  alone,  of  all  the 
Churches  in  the  world,  has  a  Sectarian  Bible. 

Under  the  Papacy  until  the  Reformation,  the  Hebrew  language 
was  confined  within  the  walls  of  the  Synagogue.  The  Papal 
Church,  true  to  its  despotic  policy,  had  uniformly  ignored  the  study. 
During  all  its  sway  in  the  dark  ages,  it  was  not  until  the  middle  of 
the  14th  century  that  the  first  Christian  author,  since  Origen  and 
Jerome  employed  the  Hebrew  language  for  the  interpretation  of 
Scripture.  And  the  first  dictionary  and  grammar  among  Chris- 
tians, date  as  lately  as  the  opening  of  the  XVIth  century,  just  prior 
to  the  Reformation  in  Germany.  No  wonder  that  the  relative  posi- 
tion of  Scriptural  study  to  a  Reformed  Church  should  have  entitled 
John  Reuciilin  "the  father  of  the  German  Reformation."  With- 
out grammar  or  lexicon,  as  we  have  them,  he  obtained  his  tuition  of 
a  Jew,  at  a  golden  crown  a  day.  And  the  man  who  dared  to  con- 
struct so  formidable  an  apparatus  as  a  grammar  and  dictionary  for 
unlocking  the  stores  of  Scripture,  found  himself  by  the  necessity  of 
the  case,  a  Protestant.  And  just  because  the  study  of  God's  Word, 
Avith  such  new  facilities  of  drawing  from  the  pure  fountains,  met 
with  Romish  opposition,  it  led  also  to  the  Christian  Reformation. 
Long  had  that  corrupt  Church  been  growing  more  and  more  debased 


in  the  profligate  manners  of  priest  and  people.  Long  had  the 
exclusion  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  induced  a  cold  and  dead  Scho- 
lasticism, reasoning  about  trifles  and  wasting  precious  life  in  pettiest 
disputes — and  engendering  a  practical  infidelity,  as  pernicious  as  the 
most  avowed.  Long  had  ecclesiastical  authority  undertaken  to  sup- 
plant God's  revealed  Word,  and  to  hinder  all  free  incpiiry.  So  that 
ignorance  and  priestcraft,  thus  long  identified  must  needs  stand  or  fall 
together.  "To  the  triumph  of  truth  it  was  above  all  things  necessary 
that  the  arms  with  which  she  was  to  conquer,  should  be  drawn  from 
the  arsenals  in  which  they  had  been  laid  aside  for  ages.  Those 
arms  were  the  sacred  writings  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  It 
was  necessary  to  revive  in  Christendom  the  love  and  the  study  of  the 
sacred  Hebrew  and  Greek  literature."  *  At  this  very  crisis  the 
Monks  of  Cologne  had  obtained  a  decree  for  the  burning  of 
Hebrew  manuscripts.  All  that  was  rich  in  sacred  learning,  and 
replete  with  illustration  and  proof  of  Holy  Writ  in  the  writings  of 
the  Jews  was  to  be  cast  into  the  flames.  The  plea  was  that  which 
the  execrable  Saracen  used  centuries  before,  when  he  burned  the 
priceless  library  of  Alexandria — that  if  the  books  agreed  with  the 
Koran,  they  were  useless,  and  if  they  disagreed  they  were  per- 
nicious. Reuchlin  came  out  as  the  young  David  of  Israel  against 
this  mailed  and  giant  Goliath  of  the  Philistines.  His  priestly 
opposers  maintained  that  even  the  study  of  Gfreek  would  tend  to 
heresy,  because  the  Greeks  were  Schismatics — and  the  study  of 
Hebrew  much  more,  because  all  who  engaged  in  it  were  sure  to 
become  Jeivs  !  But  Reuchlin  demanded  that  the  best  means  of  con- 
verting the  Israelites  would  be  to  establish  in  every  university,  two 
teachers  of  the  Hebrew  tongue,  who  should  teach  the  Christian 
theologians  to  read  the  Bible  in  Hebrew,  and  thus  to  refute  the 
Jewish  doctors.  His  was  the  true  Protestant  method,  of  overcoming 
error  by  truth,  and  not  by  torture ;  by  teaching,  and  not  by  tor- 
menting.    Yet  for  this  breach  in  their  wall,  the  whole  array  of 

*  D'Aubigne. 


priests  and  inquisitors  fell  upon  him  with  fury.  Like  famished  vul- 
tures deprived  of  their  prey,  they  broke  out  in  rage.  They 
garbled  his  writings,  perverted  the  sense,  accused  him  of  heresies, 
charged  him  with  Judaism,  and  threatened  him  with  the  inquisition. 
But  he  went  forward — he  applied  his  great  learning  to  the  correction 
of  the  Latin  Vulgate  until  men  saw  that  the  Romish  Church,  which 
had  sanctioned  the  grossest  errors  in  that  version,  was  not  infallible. 

He  writes:  "I  have  composed  a  Hebrew  grammar  and  dictionary, 
a  work  hitherto  unheard  of,  which  has  cost  me  the  greatest  trouble, 
and  a  large  portion  of  my  fortune,  induced  to  do  it  by  the  great  worth 
of  the  sacred  writings,  as  well  as  for  the  advantage  of  the  students 
in  them."  So  says  the  historian,  "  It  soon  became  a  controversy 
about  religion  and  truth  at  large — a  battle  for  the  restoration  of 
knowledge  against  the  iniquities  of  monks  and  priests,  and  against 
their  arrogance  and  despotism."* 

And  thus,  even  while  he  knew  it  not,  he  laid  the  axe  at  the  root 
of  priestly  domination.  That  simple  dictionary  and  grammar  in  the 
Hebrew  language  was  the  sling  and  smooth  stone,  by  which  the 
Romish  Philistine  was  struck  through  the  joints  of  the  harness;  and 
at  once  the  reformed  hosts  were  shouting  in  the  light  of  God's 
Word,  as  in  the  blaze  of  a  new  Revelation.  Luther  wrote  to  him : 
"The  Lord  hath  acted  in  thee,  so  that  the  light  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures should  begin  to  shine  in  this  Germany,  where  for  so  many 
a<res,  alas,  it  was  not  only  smothered,  but  totally  extinguished." 
This  same  scholarly  harbinger  of  the  Reformation,  applied  himself 
also  to  the  Greek  language,  which  then,  without  lexicon  and  gram- 
mar, he  learned,  by  dint  of  industry,  of  fugitives  from  the  Ottoman 
barbarism.  At  once  he  applied^  himself  to  furnishing  helps  foflhe 
study  of  the  Greek  Scriptures.  In  this  also  the\ame  benighted 
power  of  Romanism  interposed.  He  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  The  old 
trammelled  sophisters  turn  up  their  noses,  and  cry  out  in  the  most 
laughable  way,  that  we  carry  on  literary  affairs  adverse  to  Romish 

*Barham's  Life  and  Times  of  John  Ileuchlin,  page  116. 


X 


piety,  for  that  the  Greeks  are  Schismatics,  and  that  we  venture  to 
diffuse  their  doctrines  though  forbidden  by  the  laws  of  the  Church." 
But  he  went  forward.  By  this  means  he  opened  to  the  Germans  the 
New  Testament,  which  could  never  have  been  had  in  its  pureness 
and  power  from  the  much  falsified  Vulgate.  The  German  Reform- 
ers could  never  else  have  come  forward  with  boldness,  glowing  with 
warm  and  clear  opinions  drawn  fresh  from  the  inspired  fountains. 
The  doctrines  of  tllie  Romish  Church  were  now  subjected  to  the  tests 
of  God's  own  truth.  And  in  the  cultivation  of  this  New  Testament 
tongue,  a  daring  enterprise  was  begun  against  the  spirit  of  monkery, 
which  in  its  ignorant  dread  of  heretics,  and  its  fervent  love  of  per- 
secution, used  to  label  all  Greek  MSS.  " Cfraeca  sunt  non  leguntur." 
"  They  are  Greek,  not  to  be  read."  Among  the  Netherland  monks 
the  proverb  ran,  "Si  est  bonus  grammaticus  est  hereticus."  If  he 
is  a  good  grammarian  he  is  a  heretic.  What  wonder  that  John 
Reuchlin,  the  patron  of  Scriptural  learning,  and  the  man  who  fur- 
nished the  keys  to  the  stores  of  Scriptural  truth,  should  be  entitled 
"the  father  of  the  German  Reformation." 

But  what  a  revival  of  Scriptural  study  sprang  out  of  that  rou- 
sing of  the  soul  to  personal  responsibility  and  duty.  What  critical 
discussions  ;  what  learned  investigations ;  what  laborious  and  volu- 
minous comments  did  not  that  impulse  produce !  Not  that  the 
translation  of  the  Scriptures  was  a  new  thing,  but  only  new 
since  the  sway  of  Popery.  The  English  reformers  pointed  back  to 
the  Anglo  Saxon  Versions,  of  the  time  anterior  to  the  Papal  rule  in 
Britain,  to  prove  that  the  right  to  have  the  Scriptures  in 
their  own  tongue,  was  their  just  inheritance — though  interrupted — 
bequeathed  to  the  people  by  their  remote  ancestors,  and  no  new 
conceit  of  Cranmer,  Cromwell,  or  the  Reformation.  And  the  An- 
glo Saxon  Gospels  we  have  yet  extant  and  reprinted  in  our  day,  as 
a  living  testimony  against  the  falsity  and  tyranny  of  Rome.  So 
that  you  may  trace  the  history  of  Scriptural  Christianity  by  the  his- 
tory of  Scriptural  study.  You  can  see  where  the  Herod  of  Rome, 
for  Herodias'  sake,  imprisoned  and  beheaded  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 


8 

Where  this  anti-scriptural  apostacy  arose,  there  the  translation 
and  circulation  of  Scripture  ended  till  the  Reformation.  I  have 
looked  with  wonder  on  the  very  Hebrew  Bible,  so  diligently  handled 
by  Luther,  and  upon  the  original  manuscripts  of  his  version  of  the 
Psalms,  now  treasured  in  one  of  the  great  Protestant  libraries  of  the 
Continent.  When  in  the  opening  of  the  fourteenth  century,  one 
of  the  Popes  in  self  defence,  thought  to  provide  for  some  knowledge 
of  the  Hebrew  in  the  Papal  Church,  it  Was  found  impossible  during 
two  centuries  to  appoint  a  single  professor  in  any  university, 
excepting  Oxford  alone. 

I.  In  urging  a  critical  study  of  the  Scriptures,  especially  in  a 
Theological  course,  we  plead  first  of  all  that  it  is  due  to  the  Protestant 
'principle,  and  to  the  very  spirit  of  the  Reformation. 

Our  candidates  for  the  holy  ministry  abjure  in  their  hearts  the  Popish 
system  on  this  point,  yet  how  many  fall  into  it  in  their  practice. 
They  scorn  the  thought  of  relinquishing  private  judgment  in  inter- 
preting the  word  of  God,  yet  how  often  they  practically  waive  the 
privilege.  Though  the  Bible  is  not  forbidden  to  them  in  the  origi- 
nals, how  many  forbid  it  to  themselves.  And  even  while  they  are 
battling  the  theory  with  the  Papal  Church,  they  are  themselves 
perhaps  depending  on  some  authoritative  interpreter,  rather  than 
make  personal  examination.  They  are  submitting  to  some  current, 
traditional  comment,  as  though  they  acknowledged  the  Church  to 
fbe  .an  infallible  expositor  of  the  word.  Shall  we  say  that  the  slight 
attention  given  to  this  department,  as  it  deserts  the  Reformation 
ground,  so,  leads  the  way  to  apostacy  from  the  great  reformed  prin- 
ciples. To  maintain  the  principles,  they  must  be  kept  in  lively 
exercise.  The  right  of  private  judgment  is  best  asserted,  not  as  a 
mere  theory,  but  as  a  practice.  The  practical  undervaluing  of  this 
inalienable  right  must  tend  to  its  theoretical  abandonment.  As  we 
are  jealous  for  the  doctrine,  therefore,  as  vital  to  the  Christian 
Church,  so  are  we  jealous  and  zealous  for  the  habit,  as  indispensa- 
ble. Against  the  binding  force  of  traditions,  as  qualifying  the 
Scriptures;  against  the  withholding  of  God's  Word  from  the  people; 


9 

against  church  authority  as  superseding  God's  authority  in  its  inter- 
pretation ;  against  any  supplanting  of  the  originals  by  a  version,  and 
against  the  whole  system  of  lies  whereby  the  truth  of  God  is  made 
void,  we  would  have  this  practical  protest  entered,  in  a  more  intense 
and  universal  devotedness  to  the  study  of  Holy  Writ.  What  did 
the  Reformers,  to  whom  the  Scriptures  came  as  a  new  revelation, 
from  within  iron  bars  and  dead  languages  ?  They  translated  it 
into  every  vernacular,  until  there  have  gone  forth,  from  that  holy 
impulse,  Bibles  for  all  tongues  and  people. 

Has  the  world  any  such  right  is  the  question  ?  And  yet  Popery 
abates  nothing  of  her  claims.  And  yet  there  are  found  even 
scholars  and  professors  of  the  sacred  tongues  who  defer  to  her  pre- 
tensions. In  face  of  the  fact  that  modern  European  Infidelity  has 
grown  out  of  the  abuses  and  absurdities  which  Romanism  practises 
upon  the  world,  some  would  argue  back  from  Infidelity  to  Roman- 
ism itself.  So  the  deluded  and  bewildered  politicians  of  the  Old 
World  fall  back  from  Socialism  upon  Popery.  So  the  pendulum 
swings  to  either  extreme.  Men  who  have  seen  profane  liberties 
taken  with  the  Scripture,  are  found  turning  to  the  method 
of  refusing  liberty  to  the  Scripture  itself.  And  we  stand 
pleading  for  our  own  Bible,  against  the  sword  on  the  one  hand  that 
would  cut  it  in  pieces,  and  the  false  mother  on  the  other  hand,  who 
would  claim  it  as  her  own  begotten. 

In  an  underground  prison  at  Rome,  a  column  on  which  Paul  is 
said  to  have  been  beheaded,  contains  the  inscription,  "  The  Word 
of  God  is  not  bound."  But  this  early  Christian  testimony,  as  against 
the  heathen,  is  belied  by  the  Papacy  in  the  face  of  Christendom, 
while  it  rebukes  as  in  the  name  of  the  martyred  Apostle,  the  apos- 
tate Church  itself. 

II.  But  this  critical  study  is  demanded  by  any  proper  idea  of 
Inspiration.  If,  indeed,  according  to  Rome,  the  Church  and  the 
Priesthood  be  the  inspired  authority,  it  matters  little  whether  the 
Scriptures  be  inspired  or  not — nay,  whether  there  be  any  Scripture 
or  not.     Or,  if  according  to  the  latest  Infidelity,  it  could  possibly  be, 


10 

that  the  writers  were  inspired  and  not  the  writings,  then  could  the 
Scriptures  as  such,  claim  no  authority  at  all.  Then  could  there  be 
no  proper  sense  in  which  this  is  "the  Word  of  God."  What  a  Sa- 
tanic suggestion  that  Inspiration  cannot  be  predicated  of  writings 
but  of  persons  only.  If  it  could  be  so,  then  what  purpose  could 
such  an  inspiration  serve  for  communicating  God's  mind  and  will  in 
any  permanent  form  ?  If  we  believe  the  Scriptures  to  be  God's 
Word,  because  we  see  the  need  of  a  revelation,  and  because  this  is 
such  a  revelation  as  we  could  expect,  then  any  proper  view  of 
inspiration  must  cover  the  department  of  Language.  Strange 
enough  that  we  should  have  here  to  meet  the  new  heresy  that  lan- 
guage is  not  sufficiently  definite  for  the  embodiment  of  Religious 
truth.  And  if  not  for  a  rule  of  Faith,  then  how  for  a  rule  of  Life? 
If  not  for  a  Creed,  then  how  for  a  Commandment.  Let  it  not*  be 
thought  that  because  language  so  often  runs  mad,  there  is  no  cer- 
tainty in  it.  He  who  with  His  finger  twice  wrote  the  decalogue 
upon  tables  of  stone,  and  often  spoke  ija  living  words  to  men, 
has  every  way  honoured  language  as  the  vehicle  of  His  own  law: 
shall  we  not  say,  has  even  constructed  language  to  express  it? 

What  a  life  and  power  is  there  often  in  a  word,  when  it  is  a  word 
of  God — "Pardon"  "Righteousness"  "Salvation."  Luther  caught 
oneof  these  terms  in  an  inspired  passage  from  Paul,  and  he  says,  "this 
word,  I  felt  to  me  the  gate  of  Paradise."  So  another  has  it,  "A 
word  of  spiritual  power  has  often  sounded  in  our  ears  as  if  all  the 
bells  of  the  city  of  God  were  ringing  to  call  us  to  worship,  prayer, 
and  praise." 

It  cannot  be  concealed  that  loose  theories  of  inspiration  are  cur- 
rent, even  in.  the  Church.  A  neglect  of  the  originals  has  often 
fostered  this — and  this,  in  turn,  has  often  led  to  a  neglect  of  the 
originals.  An  inch  given  to  the  objector,  has  only  emboldened  him 
to  take  an  ell;  and  after  all  the  attempted  reconciliations  we  find 
only  more  abhorrent  views  broached  until  we  are  driven  back  upon 
our  original  ground.  The  Scripture  theory  is  the  true  theory 
of  Scripture — that   these    are    "  not   words  which  man's   wisdom 


11 

teacheth,  but  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth;"  "explaining 
spiritual  things  by  spiritual  words,"  inspired  things  by  inspired 
words.  The  few  discrepancies  to*  be  harmonized  in  Books  written 
in  so  many  ages  and  countries,  and  by  so  many  parties,  show  plainly 
how  exact  the  dictation  must  have  been.  As  if  during  a  thousand 
years,  there  had  been  wrought  in  remotest  cities,  and  by  hands  that 
were  strangers  to  each  other,  the  several  limbs  and  features  of  a 
marble  form,  which  somehow  were  brought  together,  and  composed 
the  Apollo  Belvidere  of  the  Vatican !  *  And  slight  verbal  mistakes 
of  transcribers,  through  so  many  MSS.,  are  far  more  supposable 
than  mistakes  of  the  authors  in  such  a  work.  And  in  the  four 
Gospels,  we  have  yet  to  learn  whether  every  variation  in  the 
narrative  of  the  different  Evangelists  may  not  have  had  some  im- 
portant object ;  just  as  a  quadriform  gospel  may  have  been  essen- 
tial to  give  all  those  aspects  of  the  Saviour's  life  and  character 
adapted  to  the  varieties  of  the  human  mind,  and  to  the  modes  of 
teaching  that  obtain  in  various  ages  and  countries. "f 

And  the  miraculous  preservation  of  this  volume  can  fairly  be 
claimed,  at  length,  as  an  argument  for  its  Inspiration.  Would  it — 
could  it  have  been  so  uncorruptedly  handed  down  to  us,  but  that  it 
is  the  very  written  Revelation  of  God's  mind  and  will  to  men?  It  is 
not  on  any  Church  decision  alone  that  we  rest  the  authority  of  the 
canonical  Scriptures.  This  could  not  give  an  authority,  when  first  it 
must  get  its  authority  from  the  Scriptures  themselves.  But  these, 
as  Trench  has  well  said,  have  witnessed  to  their  own  right. 
"  Like  Aaron's  rod  which  budded  and  blossomed,  these  have  flow- 
ered and  borne  fruit,  and  so  have  made  good  their  claim  to  be 
laid  up  in  the  Ark  of  the  testimony  forever.  No  Church  authority 
could  have  made  the  canonical  Scriptures  potent,  and  the  apocryphal 
impotent.  Rather,  that  testimony  in  all  time,  is  the  formal  acknowl- 
edgement of  a  fact,  a  submission  to  the  witnessing  Spirit,  who  inspired 
the  genuine  in  eternal  distinction  from  the  spurious. ' '  J    Skeptical  crit- 

*  See  Cummings  on  Evidences.     fWescott.      %Trencli' s  Hulsean  Lectures . 


12 

ics  who  are  ransacking  the  originals  to  find  discrepancies — Scholastic 
adventurers  who  study  the  Bible  to  prove  it  inharmonious  and  untrue, 
had  as  well  dive  into  the  depths  of  God's  Works,  to  find  that  creation 
has  had  no  Creator,  because  their  dull  ears  do  not  catch  all  the  har- 
monies— because  in  their  dim  vision  each  natural  science  with  its 
world  of  facts,  does  not  fully  match  with  every  other.  An  effort 
to  account  to  us  for  the  construction  of  Scripture  without  supernat- 
ural aid  is  winked  at  by  certain  Christian  scholars.  From  the  brink 
of  such  a  yawning  gulf,  we  fly  back  to  the  higher  views  of  inspiration. 

Though  there  is  a  sense,  then,  in  which  this  Book  is  to  be  treated 
as  other  books,  for  arriving  at  the  contents,  who  would  deny  that  in 
a  most  important  sense  it  stands  alone  ?  Should  we  not  look  for 
a  fulness  in  its  terms,  a  meaning  in  its  history,  and  a  scope  in  its 
prophecy  befitting  the  Divine  authorship  ?  Would  not  the  Divine 
foresight  often  beam  in  the  simplest  record,  and  make  history  seem 
sometimes  like  allegory,  by  reason  of  the  great  Gospel  ideas  that 
constantly  shine  out  from  the  page  ?  It  is  only  that  both  Testa- 
ments are  so  much  one.  It  is  oily  that  this  light  is  shed  forth  from 
so  many  mirrors  and  reflectors,  to  increase  the  brilliancy.  That 
which  in  the  skeptic's  eye  is  a  myth,  is  really  the  pith  of  the  reve- 
lation. Instead  of  being  shadow  without  substance,  it  is  indeed 
substance  and  shadow  both.  These  nebulae  which  they  would  make 
to  be  star-dust,  are  really  troops  of  stars !  The  very  silence  of  Scrip- 
ture often  speaks — as  Boyle  has  said — like  the  sun-dial,  in  which 
the  shadow  as  well  as  the  light  informs  us. 

Look  then  at  the  language  of  Prophecy.  What  is  to  hinder  its 
having  been  so  constructed  as  to  embrace  a  series  of  fulfilments 
along  the  whole  line  of  temporal  events  ?  Is  it  not  rather  what  we 
could  expect,  as  growing  out  of  the  boundless  range  of  the  Divine 
vision — that  the  Divine  r,vr*  should  take  in  a  whole  train  of  kindred 
events   at  a  glance— thi  tistory — as  the  morning  spreads 

upon  many  nu  .       ■    ;      [awn — and  that  just  as  along  line 

of  city  lamps  in  a  nigh  m  as  one,  all  should  be  embraced 

in  the  view,  no  one  exhausting  it,  and  yet  all  contemplated,  making 


up  a  fulness  that  will  yet  be  disclosed?     How  often  these  prophetic 
intimations  lay  folded  up  in  some  passage  for  ages,  as  only  the  bud 
to  be  gradually  and  sweetly  opened  to  a  perfect  bloom  by  the  rising 
Sun  of  Righteousness.     The  events  were  to  be  identified  as  a  fulfil- 
ment  under  this  developing  process.     "  These  things  have  I  told 
you,  that  when  the  time  shall  come  ye  may  remember  that  I  told 
you  of  them."     John  16:4.     And  hence,  when  an  event  is  thus 
distinctly  noticed  in  the  New  Testament  history,  and  it  is  even  said 
"all  this  was  done  that  it  might  be  fulfilled,"  why  should  we  make 
this  to  be  a  mere  happy  quotation  or  allusion  of  the  writer,  rather 
than  find,  in  the  event,  a  fulfilment,  though  it  be  not  the  chief? 
What  a  proof,  then,  does  this  become  of  one  Divine  mind,  pervading 
all  temporal  dispensations.     Then  the  eighth  Psalm  which  David 
sung  for  an  evening  hymn  perhaps  in  its  lowest  sense,  is  proved 
to  have  had  a  higher  reference,  as  quoted  by  our  Lord  himself — and 
we  see  it  to  be  prophetic  and  Messianic  in  its  fuller  scope,  glancing 
even  at  the  Incarnation  and  the  Hosannas  in  the  Temple,  and  the 
glorious  restoration  through  Christ.     At  the  Jews'  place  of  wailing 
in  Jerusalem,  I  found  a  Rabbi  going  through  the  routine  of  lamen- 
tations, with  his   open  Psalter  in  hand.     I  asked  him  if  he  would 
turn  to  the  22d  Psalm  ?      Yes.     If  he  had  read  the  New  Testament? 
Yes.     If  he  did  not  see  remarkable  connection  between  the  history 
of  Christ's  crucifixion  and  the  language  there.     "My  God.,  my  Gody 
why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?     They  parted  my  garments  among 
them,  and  cast  lots  for  my  vesture.     They  pierced  my  hands  and  my 
feet" — "But"  said  he,  "you  must  see  ivhat  this  man  says,"  point- 
ing to  the  comments  at  the  foot  of  the  page.     "This  Psalm  refers  to 
David  when  he  fled  from  Saul."     The  Jews,  before  Christ's  coming, 
found  as  many  predictions  of  Him  in  the  prophets  as  we  have  done, 
and  more.     But  when  He  came,  and  was  rejected  by  them,  they  be- 
gan to  dispute  this  reference.     Yet  Jews  and  Gentiles,  though  so 
opposed,  agree  upon  the  same  canon  of  Old  Testament  Scripture. 
And  they,  with  all  Christendom,  can  be  held  to  the  same  original 
Hebrew  text.    This  fact  alone  would  make  the  claim  of  the  language 
upon  us  sacred  indeed. 


.    14 

But  are  not  the  Jews  to  be  yet  convinced  and  converted  to 
Christ?  And  shall  Romanism  clo  this?  How  should  the  Jew  be 
an  idolater — a  worshipper  of  the  Galilean  Mary?  Where  has  the 
Jew  suffered  such  grievous  and  relentless  persecutions  as  at 
the  hand  of  Papal  powers?  The  Spanish  Inquisition  claims  to 
have  been  set  up  for  the  extermination  of  his  abused  people.  And 
to  this  .day,  as  I  could  read  to  you,  this  malignity  of  nominal  Chris- 
tians is  the  argument  against  Christianity  which  he  finds  it  hardest 
to  give  up.  Or  shall  nationalism  do  this  work?  How  shall  the 
blind  lead  the  blind  ?  And  how  is  this  to  be  done  under  a  Christian 
ministry,  that  eschews  the  study  of  the  Hebrew — that  cannot  reason 
with  a  Jew  out  of  the  original  Scriptures  ?  Can  the  church  be  in 
anywise  prepared  for  an  event  so  glorious  and  so  at  hand,  with  such 
inadequate  training  in  this  department?  Other  languages  are 
readily  mastered  by  our  young  men  of  business,  at  the  demand  of 
some  worldly  interest,  and  the  Jews  themselves,  as  a  people,  are 
acquiring  in  their  dispersion,  the  gift  of  tongues  in  which  they  shall 
yet  speak  to  men  of  every  language,  the  wonderful  works  of  God. 
They  are  providentially  training  (and  without  miraculous  imparta- 
tion)  to  act  as  a  missionary  body,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every 
creature.  Yet  to  so  many  among  us,  a  theological  education  seems 
sufficiently  complete  without  any  understanding  of  the  language  in 
which  our  theology  is  to  be  found. 

And  what  shall  we  say  about  the  language  of  prophetic  symbols? 
Is  the  Church  ready  for  this  controversy  ?  Must  not  false  grounds 
be  taken  where  there  is  no  adequate  investigation,  because  no  furni- 
ture for  the  work  ?  We  may  avail  ourselves  of  others'  labours,  and 
use  the  results  of  critical  inquiry,  but  shall  this  be  satisfactory  where 
the  glorious  map  of  the  future  lies  before  us,  and  the  predictions 
which  might  stimulate  our  faith  and  zeal  are  a  sealed  record — a 
locked  casket  because  of  this  neglect.  How  many  points  in  a  J  these 
glorious  futurities  lie  in  a  single  word — the  avaataavs — the  jtapwava. 

But  another  point  of  interest  in  the  inspiration  of  Scripture  con- 
cerns the  Language  of  Miracles.     What  is  the  only  principle  of 


15 

interpretation  ?  Do,  or  do  not  the  Scriptures  mean  what  they  say? 
"  Many,"  says  Trench,  "  have  learned  to  regard  miracles  as  so  much 
perilous  ware,  from  which  it  is  always  an  advantage  when  the  Gos- 
pels can  be  lightened  a  little."  A  class  of  Christian  interpreters 
proceed  upon  the  principle  not  to  admit  anything  as  miracle  that 
can  be  possibly  explained  away.  And  so  they  would  even  "transfer 
the  work  of  Creation  from  the  department  of  Miracle,  to  the  depart- 
ment of  Natural  Law."  In  this  field  of  natural  science,  the  battle 
is  now  pitched.  Every  new  pretension  and  position  demands  of  us, 
a  critical  acquaintance  with  the  inspired  word.  We  have  nothing 
to  fear  from  the  developements  of  science ;  because  God's  works  and 
God's  word  can  contain  nothing  but  God's  truth,  which  is  always  as 
consistent  as  Himself.  But  the  time  will  not  allow  of  ignorance  in 
the  defenders  of  Scripture.  Principal  Cunningham  has  well  said, 
that  "the  great  contests  of  the  day  are  to  be  waged  on  the  fields  of 
Scripture  itself — by  an  actual,  critical  examination  of  the  Hebrew 
and  Greek  originals."  The  post  of  attack  is  shifted  from  the  de- 
partment of  Metaphysics  to  the  department  of  Physics.  And  the 
plain  simple  question  turns  at  length  upon  the  verity  of  the  record, 
and  upon  the  fact  of  Miracle  itself  as  an  evidence  of  Christianity. 
But  Miracles  are  not  more  a  proof  of  Christianity  than  Christianity 
is  now  a  proof  of  Miracles.  The  works  first  testified  to  the  word. 
But  the  marvellous  words  have  outlived  the  works  and  will  give 
them  an  enduring  testimony.  Romanism  brings  Scriptural  Miracles 
into  contempt  by  her  winking  Madonnas  and  bleeding  wafers,  and 
liquifying  blood ;  and  Rationalism  on  the  other  hand,  denies  the 
possibility  of  a  Miracle,  even  on  Scripture  testimony.  Now  when 
from  the  controversies  of  past  centuries,  the  Scripture  Canon  has 
been  proved,  and  questions  of  authenticity  and  genuineness  have 
been  well  settled — "now  that  the  Gospels  are  seen  to  be  impreg- 
nable beyond  all  that  was  known,  until  Strauss  had  exhausted  his 
quiver" — now  that  the  Inspired  Volume  has  come  out  of  fiery 
trials  on  questions  of  language,  various  readings,  integrity  of 
the    text,    &c,    the   aim    with    some  is   to   refine  away  all   real 


16 

Christianity  into  a  dreamy  mysticism,  or  a  transcendental  senti- 
ment— anything  that  will  emasculate  this  religion,  destroying  its 
life  and  power.  But  having  gained  such  ground,  as  the  life-long 
toils  of  Christian  scholars  have  won  for  us,  we  have  now  to  battle  for 
the  plain,  unvarnished,  and  unabated  meaning  of  the  inspired  word. 
The  tendency  of  science  in  the  hands  of  ungodly  men  to  Atheistic 
Materialism,  demands  a  knowledge  of  its  latest  disclosures  in  a  jeal- 
ous but  fearless  reference  to  the  written  word.  What  have  those 
critics  gained  who  have  been  so  unwilling  to  find  Miracles  in  the 
Scriptures — who  have  disparaged  every  thing  miraculous  where  the 
slightest  pretence  could  be  found  ?  They  have  seen  the  skeptical 
taste  fostered  and  the  position  emboldened,  until  all  that  is  super- 
natural in  Christianity,  is  sought  to  be  explained  away! 

The  Rationalistic  interpretation  practices  upon  the  language 
until  it  comes  as  has  been  well  said,  to  substitute  philological  for 
historical  wonders.  What  if  we  are  told  that  the  miraculous  con- 
version of  water  into  wine,  was  merely  the  bringing  in  of  a  new 
supply  from  without,  and  only  so  represented  in  the  narrative  ? 
What  if  we  hear  that  Peters'  finding  the  money  in  the  fish's  mouth 
was  only  his  catching  as  many  fish  as  would  sell  for  that  money  ? 
The  question  then  turns  upon  the  use  of  language,  and  the  common 
universal  laws  of  interpretation. 

But  it  needs  to  be  seen  that  Miracles  were  not  mere  arbitrary 
signs,  to  attest  Christ's  commission  and  the  Divine  revelation. 
They  were  chosen,  peculiar  signs — every  one  of  them  reflecting  im- 
portant truth,  illustrative  of  the  system  under  which  they  were 
wrought.  While  the  Pantheistic  deniers  of  the  miracle  would  make 
it  an  impossible  thing,  against  God's  revelation  of  himself,  and  in- 
consistent with  God,  these  miraculous  works  stand  out  in  beautiful 
consistency  with  all  the  doctrine  of  the  Fall  and  the  Redemption. 
Under  the  New  Testament,  Christ  appears  in  them  as  restoring  the 
ruins  of  the  fall,  and  in  each  redemptive  act,  hints  to  us  of  what  the 
full  redemption  shall  be.  Hence  it  is  history  and  picture  both; 
not  myth  but  truth,  and  truth  pictorial,  illustrative  of  other  truth. 


17 

Miracles  are  thus  prophetic,  if  you  please,  just  as  prophecy  is  in  a 
sense  miraculous. 

But  we  urge  further  that  this  critical  study  of  the  Scripture  is 
becoming  ever  more  indispensable  to  the  ordinary  work  of  the  min- 
istry. If  students  have  held  the  critical  controversies  as  apart  from 
their  practical  work,  or  that  the  language  of  God's  Word  might  be 
left  for  the  Theology  of  it — let  them  beware.  As  though  one  must  not 
always  prove  his  ignorance,  while  he  knows  not  as  yet  the  language 
in  which  his  theology  is  found.  This  aversion  to  close  analysis — to  - 
roots  and  idioms — to  the  business  of  grammars  and  lexicons — this 
impatience  of  immediate  results  in  the  conversion  of  men,  must  find 
the  way  everywhere  contested.  The  great  moral  questions  of  the 
day  are  to  be  agitated  and  settled  not  so  much  on  the  old  grounds 
of  expediency  or  philosophy,  as  upon  this  ground  of  the  letter  of 
God's  Word — the  Thus  saitli  the  Lord.  We  have  pleaded  for  the 
Sabbath,  and  for  social  order  too  much  on  grounds  of  mere  utility. 
And  when,  at  length,  men  reply  that  this  is  not  their  view  of  utility, 
or  that  indulgence  is  a  higher  law  to  them,  where  shall  our  practical 
preachers  find  themselves — having  left  too  much  the  platform  of 
God's  Word?  What  will  you  say  about  the  Mosaic  record — about 
the  institution  and  law  of  the  Sabbath — about  the  theory  that  the 
Apostolic  writings  were  designed  only  for  that  time,  and  have  be- 
come mainly  obsolete — what  about  the  doctrine  of  Hell  and  Eternal 
punishment  as  a  Jewish  notion,  not  maintained  by  the  terms  of 
Scripture  ? 

Skepticism  is  adopting  the  cheap  tract  system  of  sending  its  poi- 
sonous leaves  broadcast,  and  sowing  beside  many  waters.  Shame 
on  our  educated  ministry,  that  the  great  students  in  the  originals, 
and  the  scholars  in  this  day  are  so  much  the  perverters  of  the  truth  ! 
These  must  be  met.  Their  sophistries  in  what  is  called  the  higher 
criticism,  are  coming  freely  among  us.  The  emigration  from  the 
German  States  increases  and  is  likely  to  increase.  The  most  rabid 
Socialists  of  the  West  are  said  to  have  come  out  of  the  Romish 
Church.  If  indeed  our  day  be,  as  Hengstenberg  supposes,  the  sea- 
son of  Satan's  being  loosed,  in  every  form  of  Skepticism  and  false 


18 

science,  of  social  disorganization  and  priestly  pretension,  of  war,  and 
lust  and  crime,  then  can  any  be  idle?  Infidelity  seems  driven  from 
its  Judea  and  its  Jerusalem,  to  go  abroad  in  the  earth,  on  its  Sa- 
tanic commission.  Our  new  States  are  especially  exposed  to  this 
learned  Rationalism,  and  this  vulgar  Infidelity.  The  truth  of 
Christ  must  have  her  numerous  and  well  trained  champions.  The 
absence  of  Christian  organization  and  religious  restraint  in  our  new 
territories  will  seem  to  give  this  enemy  the  field  for  a  time,  until 
Churches  can  be  planted  and  strengthened.  But  the  defences  of 
Christianity  must  be  popularized — must  be  brought  down  to  the 
masses.  And  our  students  must  be  so  abundantly  armed  as  to  fur- 
nish arms  to  others.  The  wants  of  the  Church  require  eminently  in 
our  day,  a  ministry,  (not  to  say  a  membership)  learned  in  the 
Scriptures,  familiar  with  the  English  version  in  all  its  parts,  and 
versed  in  the  originals.  There  needs,  now,  a  dispensation,  as  of  the 
last  Apostle — a  ministry  raised  up  for  carrying  the  Gospel  to  the 
learned  Gentile  world — as  to  the  very  schools  of  Athens,  and  the 
very  courts  of  Rome — men  who,  for  this  end,  have  sat  at  the  feet 
of  whatever  Gamaliel,  in  this  day  of  most  abundant  helps.  The  con- 
test becomes  more  radical,  and  so  more  biblical.  The  learned  criticism 
that  is  merely  Scholastic,  separates  itself  from  a  living  faith  in 
Christianity,  and  treats  the  Bible  altogether  as  any  other  book,  and 
the  writings  as  simply  the  productions  of  their  authors — the  Psalms 
as  mere  natural  poetry.  What  we  need  is  a  critisism  as  learned, 
which  is  yet  Christian,  and  which,  from  an  inner  citadel  of  faith, 
goes  forth  to  defend  the  outworks.  Errors  of  fact  and  of  science, 
and  discrepancies  between  the  narratives,  as  of  common  writers, 
quite  at  war  with  the  doctrine  of  a  plenary  inspiration,  will  be  as- 
serted by  the  crowd,  as  they  are  sometimes  conceded  by  such  schol- 
ars as  are  mere  scholars.  And  then  comes  the  question, — Is  there' 
such  a  thing  as  Inspiration?  or  miracle,  or  prophecy?  Is  there  any 
written  revelation?  And  is  there  any  binding  authority  in  the  Bi- 
ble?    Is  it  the  word  of  God  ? 

Rome  presses  to  the  same  Infidel  questioning,  by  casting  doubt 
upon  the  infallible  word,  in  order  to  magnify  her  own  infallibility. 


19 

Rome,  like  Infidelity,  asserts  the  practical  inutility  of  Scripture,  the 
obscureness  of  the  Divine  oracle — the  worthies sness,  nay  the  mis- 
chief of  the  Bible  in  the  hands  of  the  people.  She  pleads  that  the 
field  of  inspired  truth,  is  "a  field  of  thickets  and  brambles,"  and 
that  God's  word  is  only  the  store-house  from  which  all  fatal  errors 
have  been  gathered.  And  though  Christ  himself  has  commanded 
the  people  to  "search  the  Scriptures"  Rome  protests  and  gives 
counter  command;  and,  worst  of  all,  she  puts  forward  a  corrupt 
Church,  and  a  more  corrupt  Priesthood,  as  the  inspired  authority ! 
To  meet  all  this,  we  must  more  fully  arm  ourselves  with  the  Bible, 
and  stand  with  the  sword  of  the  Spirit.  Our  arrows  must  be  drawn 
from  this  quiver.  "If  Biblicism  has  been  attacked  among  us,"  says 
D'Aubigne,  "the  reason  is  that  there  is  not  enough  Biblicism  among 
us." 

Plainly,  the  question  which  comprises  all  moral  questions,  must 
turn  upon  sacred  criticism.  And  in  this  field  every  licentiate  should 
prove  himself  at  home.  It  is  vain  to  talk  loudly  of  Skepticism, 
Infidelity,  German  Rationalism,  Priestly  Authority,  False  Science, 
if  this  be  understood  as  only  the  hue  and  cry  of  ignorant  declaimers, 
who  boast  their  indifference  to  original  and  critical  research.  The 
people  may  soon  come  to  demand  of  their  ministers,  the  solution  of 
difficulties  proposed  by  learned  deism,  and  by  the  latest  analysis. 
It  will  be  not  declamation  so  much,  as  demonstration,  that  will  be 
sought.  And  what  we  must  have,  is  a  ministry  more  thoroughly 
Biblical — in  training,  in  arguing,  in  preaching.  This  will  soon  give 
us  a  membership  better  skilled  in  the  defence  of  Christianity.  We 
have  demand  this  moment,  for  something  not  German  but  American 
— not  for  scholars  as  such,  but  for  the  Church  at  large,  that  shall 
bring  home  to  every  intelligent  reader  the  results  of  learned  re- 
search as  to  the  authority,  integrity,  and  interpretation  of  each  of 
the  canonical  books,  with  reference  to  the  latest  inquiries.  The 
explorations  in  the  geography  of  Scripture,  and  the  startling  develope- 
ments  in  antiquities,  must  force  something  of  their  results  and  evi- 
dence upon  public  attention.  It  is  remarkable  that  testimonies  to 
Holy  Writ  arc  gathering  from  most  unexpected  and   indisputable 


20 

sources.  It  is  almost  the  kind  of  proof  asked  by  Dives  in  torment 
for  his  brethren  on  earth.  One  comes  to  us  from  the  dead  of  history — 
from  the  mounds  of  the  Tigris,  and  from  the  rocks  of  Sinai — and  the 
menof  Nineveh,  are  strangely  rising  up  in  judgment  against  this  gener- 
ation to  condemn  it.  God  had  ordained  the  burial  of  ancient  cities  and 
records,  it  would  seem,  for  a  resurrection  in  our  day — and  strange 
confirmations  of  Holy  Writ  are  dug  up  from  old  graves,  to  confront 
objectors  in  an  age  of  boasting  disbelief. 

Astronomy,  with  its  telescopes  of  ever  more  amazing  power  makes 
its  new  discoveries,  and  turns  to  the  most  ancient  of  the  inspired 
writings  only  to  find  there  the  evidence  of  the  profoundest  knowl- 
edge, such  as  proves  the  divine  origin  of  the  record.  These  trea- 
sures of  revelation,  historical  and  scientific,  as  well  as  moral,  are  to 
be  dug  for  in  order  to  be  found. 

Need  we  urge,  finally,  that  such  a  critical  study  of  the  Scriptures 
must  be  only  more  strengthening  and  enlivening  to  ones  daily 
piety.  Whatever  gives  confirmation  to  Christian  faith  is  a  means  of 
grace.  This  is  edification,  whereby  one  is  built  more  and  more  upon 
the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  and  finds  Jesus  Christ 
himself  to  be  the  chief  corner  stone  of  all  truth.  If  Christian  learn- 
ing was  ever  feared  as  dampening  Christian  ardour,  that  time  has 
past,  except  with  dreamers  and  visionaries.  Just  as  it  confirms  our 
faith  to  traverse  now  the  very  localities  of  Scriptural  history,  and 
just  as  the  bold  features  of  Jerusalem  are  found  there  so  exactly 
corresponding  with  the  records,  that  we  recognize  Zion,  and  Olivet, 
and  Kedron,  and  Jehoshaphat,  as  the  lines  of  a  familiar  face,  and 
can  walk  the  old  footpath  to  Bethany  as  if  with  Christ  himself — so 
to  get  the  gospel  in  the  very  terms  of  it,  is  inspiring  and  refreshing 
beyond  comparison.  It  is  like  washing  in  Jordan  itself,  rather  than 
in  Abana,  or  Pharpar  of  Damacus. 

But  it  will  appear  from  all  the  history  of  Scriptural  study, 
that  with  the  learning  that  is  demanded,  the  Piety  is  ever 
the  most  indispensable.  God  does  not  construct  his  revelation, 
whether  in  nature,  in  providence,  or  in  Scripture,  so  as  to 
force   conviction.     This  is  constantly   a   test   of    principle.     One 


21 

may  disbelieve,  precisely  what  another  believes.  The  difference 
shall  be  owing  to  the  heart.  Mere  scholarship  in  Scripture  will 
not  command  faith.  The  mere  scholastic  furniture  may  rather  hin- 
der it :  just  as  the  physician  who  studies  anatomy  and  disease  as  a 
mere  science  may  be  skeptical  of  the  Divine  authorship  by  deifying 
natural  law :  just  as  the  printer  may  set  up  the  types  of  every 
learned  volume,  and  never  be  learned.  The  fresh,  evangelical  spirit 
of  our  American  Church  might  put  minute  research  to  the  very  best 
account.  Based  upon  a  lively  piety  and  a  believing  spirit,  a  true 
Christian  scholarship  could  now  do  more  among  us  for  the  coming 
Kingdom  than  two  centuries  of  mere  investigation  have  done.  Let 
it  not  be  imagined  that  Scholasticism  is  what  we  want,  any  more 
than  Monasticism.  Mere  grammar  and  philology  have  flourished 
and  do  now  flourish  where,  alas,  the  simple  teaching  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  the  Bible  knowledge  of  many  an  unlettered  saint  cannot 
be  found.  As  Tholuck,  in  the  view  of  such  a  system,  has  well  said, 
"I  have  deduced  a  doctrine  for  myself  that  in  reading  the  word  of 
God,  the  right  interpretation  can  by  no  means  be  reached  by  pick- 
ing at  the  letter.  Ye  who  squeeze  and  press  the  letter,  though  you 
do  it  with  good  intention,  do  but  be  reminded  how  often,  when 
this,  which  may  truly  be  named  a  genuine  mother's  breast,  has  been 
too  much  pressed,  blood  instead  of  milk  has  flowed  forth."  Luther 
too  beheld  the  mischief  when  he  said,  "Human  reason  flits  and  flut- 
ters about  the  letter  of  the  Divine  Word,  until  it  has  got  it  to  rights 
for  itself.  How  often  men  who  deal  in  keys,  and  are  noted  lock- 
picks,  are  thieves  and  robbers !  I  warn  you  that  a  critical  skepti- 
cism may  become  fashionable  here,  as  in  parts  of  Germany;  when  to 
be  a  savant  as  some  one  has  said,  one  must  reject  some  canonical 
book,  or  bring  forward  some  new  theory  of  revelation.  How  many 
are  rich  in  the  grammar  but  poor  in  the  grace !  How  many  work 
in  this  laboratory  night  and  day,  and  put  the  Scriptures,  text  by 
text,  and  word  by  word  into  their  red  hot  crucible — and  this  is  their 
business  and  trade!  They  may  even  make  discoveries,  quote  au- 
thorities, crowd  their  treatises  with  learned  terms,  and  yet  they  have 
only  made  a  book  on  the  Bible,  and  have  not  entered  into  the  ves- 


22 

tibule  of  the  Holy  Temple  of  God.  Like  children  they  are  ever 
swinging  to  and  fro  upon  the  gate,  and  never  enter.  How  different 
a  thing  to  devour  the  Bible  physically — as  in  Russia,  men  are  made 
in  punishment,  to  eat  their  own  book — or  to  receive  the  word,  and 
live  on  "the  pure  milk  of  the  word,"  and  "grow  thereby." 

"We  would  plead,  then,  for  a  critical  study  of  the  Scriptures  in 
the  whole  community.  In  the'  family,  the  Bible  class,  the  Sabbath 
School,  the  English  Bible,  at  least,  should  be  studied — in  its  history, 
its  canon,  its  connections,  and  in  its  defences.  We  must  come  to 
this,  if  we  would  fortify  our  youth  against  the  arrogant  assumptions 
of  a  corrupt  hierarchy,  or  against  the  infidel  objections  which  are 
on  the  lips  of  the  multitude.  If  we  would  be  saved  from  the  scourge 
of  up-start  netv-versionists,  our  own  time-honoured  version  must  be 
known,  in  its  claims  upon  scholarly  respect  and  reverence.  Instead 
of  removing  from  our  colleges  the  departments  of  moral  philosophy 
and  natural  science,  as  bearing  upon  God's  Word,  let  a  greater 
attention  be  devoted  to  these  branches  in  the  collegiate  course. 
Instead  of  transferring  these  studies  to  our  Theological  Seminaries, 
because  they  make  a  special  claim  upon  our  ministry  at  this  day, 
let  them  rather  have  an  enlarged  place  in  our  colleges,  where  all 
our  young  men  can  be  taught  them  as  essentials  for  any  liberal  pro- 
fession or  occupation.  Would  that  our  collegiate  course  could  be 
more  Biblical — more  religious.  Would  that  our  candidates  could 
come  to  their  theological  curriculum  full  masters  of  mental,  moral 
and  natural  science — skilled  in  the  defences  of  our  Christianity,  and 
critical  scholars  in  the  Scriptures,  with  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew,  no 
less  than  of  the  Greek  language.  This  we  need.  And  our  Church 
in  carrying  out  its  noble  plan  of  religious  education  may  yet  bring 
us  this  desideratum,  with  all  the  other  blessings  of  such  a  work. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  plain  that  the  ministry  of  our  day  must  battle 
right  and  left,  against  Romanism  on  the  one  hand,  and  Rationalism 
on  the  other.  Against  both  alike  we  are  called  to  assert  and  main- 
tain the  supreme  authority  of  God's  Word.  The  one  adds  to  the 
Scriptures  what  will  suit  its  own  system  of  error  and  superstition — 
using  its  traditions  as  Mahommed  used  his  new  revelations,  merely 


23 

to  serve  his  purpose  of  power,  and  to  build  up  his  scheme  of  delu- 
sion.    The  other  takes  away  from  the  Scripture  whatever  it  please — 
some  things  as  uninspired,  others  as  obsolete,  others  as  erroneous, 
others  as  mystical,  until  it  has  cut  and  trimmed  the  Bible  to  its  own 
liking.     But  against  both,  the  angel  of  the  apocalypse  utters  the 
same  awful  and  final  anathema,  "to  add  to  them,  all  the  plagues  that 
are  written  in  the  Book,"  or  "to  take  away  their  part  out  of  the  Book 
of  Life."     We  stand  on  the  simple  platform  of  the  Word  of  Cfod, 
as  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice.     The  Religion  of 
Protestant  Christianity  is  the  Religion  of  God's  Word.     On  either 
side  of  us,  all  is  a  sea  of  doubt  and  invention.     We  find  ourselves 
assailed  right  and  left — but  this  is  our  ground  :  "Tradition  and  in- 
novation are  the  Scylla  and  Charybdis  of  our  Theology."     The  old 
bottles  of  Romanism,  or  the  new  patches  of  Rationalism,  we  alike 
reject.     The  Jewish  old  clothes  of  the  Papacy,  or  the  meretricious 
finery  of  Infidelity,  we  cannot  buy  at  such  a  price  as  the  pearl  of 
God's  truth.     The  Church,  like  her  Master,  is  now  led  up  by  the 
spirit  into  the  wilderness,  to  be  tempted  of  the  Devil.     And  at  every 
challenge,  impious  as  it  may  be,  we  are  to  confront  him  out  of  the 
Scriptures,  "  as  it  is  written" — "as  it  is  written."     The  right  of 
private   judgment  which  we  assert  is  not  the  right  of  enthroning 
reason  above  revelation.     It  is  rather  a  denial  of  man's  right  to 
enthrone  anything  above  the  simple  Word  of  God.     We  do  not  re- 
nounce authority.     We  denounce  mere  human  authority  to  exalt  the 
Divine.     We  reject  the  authority  of  the  priest  and  the  Church  where 
they  have  usurped  God's  authority  as  set  forth  in  his  word.     And 
with  the  most  profound   submission,  we  bow  to  the  written  rule, 
knowing  that  no  prerogative  can  transcend  God's  own.     The  chief. 
Romish  author  of   our  day  declares  that    "  he  who  establishes  Ms 
faith  upon  Scripture,  or  on  the  results  to  which  his  Biblical  re- 
searches have  led.  him,  has  no  faith — does  not  knoiv  at  all  what  faith 
is."*     And  the  latest  Rationalism  echoes  the  same  sentiment,  that 
"  Biblicism  is  not  merely  a  Theological  error,  but  a  placjuc  of  the 
Church.''^     And  so  we  see,  it  is  Rome  that  plays  into  the  hands  of 

*Mofthler.  fScherer. 


24 

Infidelity — baptizes  its  most  rabid  aspersions  upon  Scripture  and 
sanctifies  its  arguments.  The  pleadings  of  the  Romanist  and  those 
of  the  Rationalist  are  most  remarkably  akin,  as  aimed  against  our 
position.  Both  contest  our  right  of  going  directly  to  the  Bible.  Both 
deny  its  supreme  authority.  The  former  would  overthrow  it,  to 
establish  its  own;  the  latter  would  overthrow  it  to  establish  nothing. 
They  may  protest  that  they  have  no  liking  for  each  other.  But  like 
Herod  and  Pilate,  they  conspire  to  crush  the  "Eternal  Word.  Ro- 
manism like  Herod,  arrays  Christ  in  a  gorgeous  robe,  sets  Him  at 
nought,  and  sends  him  with  pomp  to  Pilate.  And  Infidelity,  like 
Pilate,  coolly  washes  its  hands  of  the  awful  consequence,  and  hands 
him  over  to  the  violent  multitude  for  crucifixion. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Board  of  Directors — 

I  have  come  to  this  work 
profoundly  impressed  with  the  demands  of  my  department.  I  claim 
to  bring  to  it  only  an  enthusiasm — which  I  hope  at  least  to  impart  to 
the  students — and  a  sense  of  inadequacy  to  fulfil  its  high  obligations. 
I  could  have  shrunk  from  it  altogether,  but  that  providence  was  dis- 
abling me  from  my  pastoral  charge,  yet  leaving  me  some  strength 
and  furniture  for  this.  And  only  your  call,  with  the  flattering  una- 
nimity of  the  General  Assembly,  could  have  satisfied  me  in  remov- 
ing from  the  field  of  my  twelve  years  labor  and  reward. 

Death  is  sadly  invading  the  corps  of  this  Professorship  in  our 
land.  Two  venerable  and  eminent  names  have  lately  been  inscribed 
among  the  dead.  Stuart  and  Edwards  have  gone  from  the  same 
institution  to  the  world  of  Revelation.  Our  own  beloved  Church 
yet  weeps  over  the  fathers  who  have  recently  vacated  their  different 
chairs  for  the  heavenly  seats.  But  the  Great  Teacher  ever  lives — 
the  Inspirer  of  the  word,  and  the  promised  Infallible  Guide  into  all 
truth.  And  the  Gracious  Master,  as  Head  of  the  Church,  and 
Helper  of  his  weak  servants,  gives  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  who 
ask  Him. 


PAMPHLET  BINDER 

^3^   Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
■^^—    Stockton,  Calif. 


BS540  J17 

A  plea  for  the  critical  study  of  the 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00038  8530 


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